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Corvette fans pay to be Detroit VIPs: 150 Vette lovers will be among the first to see new sports car

December 5, 2012

A new Corvette always draws big crowds. This is the 2005 Corvette, the first of the C6 generation, on display at the 2005 Detroit auto show.

How deep does some people's passion for the Chevrolet Corvette run? Deep enough that 150 of them paid as much as $995 each, plus travel expenses to Detroit in early January, to be among the first to see the redesigned 2014 Corvette.

Those 150 fans will be in the room, along with hundreds of invited journalists from around the world, on Jan. 13 when Chevy pulls the cover off the new C7 Corvette on the eve of the Detroit auto show. They also get a ringside seat on Jan. 14 for the new Vette's press conference on the show floor in Cobo Center.

It's another sign of the intense anticipation for the new Corvette, the seventh full redesign in the car's 60-year history. Enthusiast magazines and websites have tracked the car's development for years, publishing spy photos of prototypes, artist renderings and speculation. Chevy has teased the new car in photos and videos at www.one13thirteen.com, a reference to the car's reveal date.

Chevy gave the passes to the reveal events to the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky., which sits across the street from the Corvette assembly plant, to sell as a fundraiser.

When the passes went up for sale on the museum's website, www.corvettemuseum.org, they sold out within seven minutes, events manager Roc Linkov says. That's faster than sales for the museum's high-performance driving events, which typically sell out in 10 minutes. A waiting list formed, just in case any of the original buyers drop out.

After expenses, the museum will net about $40,000 from the C7 Corvette reveal program, Linkov says. The package includes bus transportation around Detroit, two nights in a luxury hotel and a private dinner with the Corvette program team.

The museum charged $995 per pass to the reveal. A pass buyer could add a guest for $205. But the total number of people for the event was limited to 150.

Participants also have to make their own travel arrangements to get to Detroit. Linkov says passes were sold to Corvette fans from across the United States and Canada.

In light of the demand, the museum asked Chevrolet for more passes but was turned down due to space limitations at the reveal venue. Chevrolet is keeping the location under wraps to avoid attracting a large crowd outside the event.